Don’t go throwing in the Astros’ towel just yet

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Very little has gone right for the Astros through the first fifth of the season.

The bullpen is a bust.

Closer Brandon Lyon has blown half his save opportunities (4-for-8).

Carlos Lee is hitting .228 wtih a .643 OPS and 20 RBI.

Starters are 7-14 with a 4.76 ERA.

The pen is worse: 6-6, 5.36 ERA and 9 blown saves.

You can add to the list, but we all agree: The road to a 13-21 record has been littered with potholes, detours, power outages, blow-ups, blowouts and road blocks. In other words, the Astros are striking out all around…literally and figuratively. The highlights, streaks and silver linings have been limited to the young kids (Brett Wallace) and the surprises (Jason Bourgeois, J.R. Towles, Bud Norris).

Still, the Astros have recovered from that dismal 1-7 start (playing 12-14 since) despite that awful bullpen which blew another potential “W” Sunday. Think about that stat alone: If the bullpen closes out even five of those nine blown saves, the Astros are 18-17.

Granted, the things that have gone wrong in the first 34 games are the things that make a bad team bad. Most bad teams don’t have a great bullpen, don’t hit well with runners in scoring position and have multiple holes in the lineup. But some of the things wrong with this version of your favorite nine can be fixed, perhaps relatively easily. Are the Astros one or two players away? No, certainly not.

Are they better than they’ve played the last stretch of games? Absolutely. So don’t throw in that towel just yet. You can have it handy, but hold up just a bit.

After 34 games last year, the Astros were, wait for it, 13-21, 6 1/2 games out of first place. But in 2011, the Astros have one thing they did not have in 2010: promise of youth and energy.

To be sure, the 2011 misfirings and failures have revolved primarily around the veterans. Carlos Lee, Bill Hall, Wandy Rodriguez, Nelson Figueroa and, at least recently, Brett Myers. If those players were anywhere close to their best, Houston isn’t 13-21.

Don’t go shouting me down when I’m preaching good, especially since I’m not setting up this team to make a World Series run. But — and here it comes — with this so-far weak division, a team hitting on even half its cylinders has a chance. Should a bad team throw in the towel when the other teams in the division aren’t much better? When bad can improve to mediocre and make things interesting, why not?

Lee is hitting .467 with a HR and five RBI in May. Bud Norris has five quality starts in a row. Mark Melancon is 1.62 in 19 relief appearances and he’s essentially the de facto closer with Lyon on the DL. Not to mention that the starting shortstop has rejoined the team and the organization’s top prospect is putting it all together at Oklahoma City.

Is this a .500 team? Probably. But if the question marks turn into exclamation points, the next 128 games could be interesting.